1And there is a man of the hill-country of Ephraim, and his name [is] Micah, 2and he says to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver which have been taken of yours, and [of which] you have sworn, and also spoken in my ears; behold, the silver [is] with me, I have taken it”; and his mother says, “Blessed [is] my son of YHWH.” 3And he gives back the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother says, “I had certainly sanctified the silver to YHWH, from my hand, for my son, to make a carved image, and a molten image; and now, I give it back to you.” 4And he gives back the money to his mother, and his mother takes two hundred pieces of silver, and gives them to a refiner, and he makes them a carved image, and a molten image, and it is in the house of Micah. 5As for the man Micah, he has a house of gods, and he makes an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrates the hand of one of his sons, and he is for a priest to him; 6in those days there is no king in Israel, each does that which is right in his own eyes.

7And there is a young man of Beth-Lehem-Judah, of the family of Judah, and he [is] a Levite, and he [is] a sojourner there. 8And the man goes out of the city, out of Beth-Lehem-Judah, to sojourn where he finds, and comes to the hill-country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, to work his way. 9And Micah says to him, “Where do you come from?” And he says to him, “I [am] a Levite of Beth-Lehem-Judah, and I am going to sojourn where I find.” 10And Micah says to him, “Dwell with me, and be for a father and for a priest to me, and I give ten pieces of silver to you for the days, and a suit of garments, and your sustenance”; and the Levite goes [in]. 11And the Levite is willing to dwell with the man, and the young man is to him as one of his sons. 12And Micah consecrates the hand of the Levite, and the young man is for a priest to him, and he is in the house of Micah, 13and Micah says, “Now I have known that YHWH does good to me, for the Levite has been for a priest to me.”